Directory:

The Third Sunday After Easter

Intent: Divine Protection

THE COLLECT

O great alone-born, hear us this day when we cry to Thee, O One-Father, almighty
spirit, the firstborn of every living being and every Aeon! Help us, O holy angels! May
our afflictions both within and without swiftly flee away from us, so that the benevolent
powers may come to us, remain with us, and protecting us, guide us to Thine ineffable
Light!
Amen.

THE LESSON

The lesson is taken from the Chaldean Oracles:

The soul of man, with nothing in it subject to death, should press God closely to itself;
but now it is all drunk, for it glories in the Harmony under whose sway the mortal frame
exists. Seek out the channel for the Soul-Stream, whence it is that the Soul fell into
slavery to the body, and to what state thou shalt rise again. Those who flee the reckless
fated wing of Fate and stay themselves in God, draw to themselves the fires in all their
prime as they descend out of the Father. And the soul is nourished all these aeons by the
empyrean fruit which it gathered from God, who is our home, and our true Self.

THE GOSPEL

The gospel is taken from the Gospel according to St. Thomas:

Jesus said: Blessed are the solitary and elect, for you shall find the kingdom; because
you come from it, and you shall go there again. Jesus said: If they say to you: 'From
where have you originated', you say to them: 'We have come from the Light, where the Light
has originated through itself. It stood and it revealed itself in their image.' If they
say to you: 'Who are you?', say: 'We are His sons and we are the elect of the Living
Father.' If they ask you: 'What is the sign of your Father in you?', say to them: 'It is a
movement and a rest.'

A Homily for the Third Sunday After Easter

presented by the Most Reverend Stephan A. Hoeller, bishop of the Ecclesia Gnostic